YP Letters: Corbyn's politics not extreme by pre-Thatcher standards

Jeremy Corbyn launched Labour's manifesto in Bradford.

RECENT letters give a clear indication of just how far to the right British politics have shifted.

From 1945 until the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, the centre ground was occupied by Butskillite politics, so called after RA Butler (Conservative) and Hugh Gaitskill (Labour), with prime ministers like Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson.

Michael Heseltine, far from being a “Fifth Columnist”, belongs to this tradition.

These people had seen the results of the Great Depression and the war, so were relatively cautious in their outlook.

Far from being “conservative”, Thatcher and Reagan ushered in the era of extreme financial liberalism that led to the financial crash of 2007-8, the results of which are still being suffered by many people around the world. Le Pen and Trump are heirs to this crash.

The Labour manifesto appears to hark back to that period of good old British Butskillite consensus, not to Karl Marx.

From; Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

I THINK the BBC has done a wonderful job in transforming Jeremy Corbyn’s image from Marxist extremist to moderate leader with attractive policies of voter appeal. No costings, no mention of Brexit. Often a whole main news programme has been devoted to Corbyn’s Labour.

But some of us have been here before when the immediate post-war Labour government nationalised everything within sight and held back Britain’s recovery for 10 years (we still had food rationing while the rest of Europe was back into prosperity).

Does the BBC Charter not demand even-handedness?

From: T Marston, Lincoln.

WHAT a mess we face. Good to know it isn’t the fault of the Labour Party or we would never hear the last of it.

It all dates from the post-war Tory governments. If their members had had the political maturity to accept the Common Market, and if its MPs had been true to Parliamentary democracy and not just on a quest for personal power, their spats would be over.

From: Jeff Anderson, Cadman Road, Bridlington.

ANDREW Vine (The Yorkshire Post, May 16) was quite correct to say that Theresa May was well prepared for her interview on The One Show.

How we all long for the freshness and spontaneity of a Diane Abbott interview!